Recently while at the pediatrician’s office for my son’s booster shot and checkup, I had the unlucky experience of listening to the doctor explain to me why it was NOT ok for my son not to be potty trained yet. As I remember many months back she talked to me about it, which at the time I thought was good to be thinking ahead. But now that he has reached the -I would imagine most average age for becoming potty trained- it was an absolute failure on my part, most subtly added, for him to not be doing his stuff on the potty. As I have discovered toddlers are rather attached to the idea of doing their pipi caca in their diapers, or at least mine is. It doesn’t really bother me, if he feels good about it and is regular that is all that counts for me and it’s not like he is 4 or even 3 for that matter. It seems no matter where you turn there is always the indirect way the French communicate that you don’t meet the requirements, and this is not just an opposition because I am a foreigner, their compatriots get the same treatment. I don’t understand how positive reinforcement doesn’t exist in France. I know it is a very complex and confusing theory but still this is the land of intellectuals!!! I don’t really appreciate the fact that I have to sit in a hot waiting room with other mothers and their annoying screaming children for at least 30 minutes past our appointment time before it is our turn, and then to be told that I should be doing something completely different because it is wrong what I have been doing. As it goes for many other instances involving the French, you just got to keep your head up. That I will say is one of the daily cultural attributes that I miss in the US. When people ask me what I miss, I don’t always mention the positive attitudes or the way of thinking that being positive will get you farther for I don’t want to offend the person I am talking with, it’s easier to just say peanut butter. Over the years I have noticed this “façon de faire,” thinking it was just inexistent customer service, is just how they are. The French are immune to daily commentaries but not me, not yet. Maybe in the next decade, although probably not.
She is so full of it. Here in the states all the mom's that I tell I am trying to potty train Max say, "Don't even bother until he's three, especially a boy" and at the park there are always moms that say that their 4 year old STILL wears diapers at night and I shouldn't sweat it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I DO NOT miss the negativity, you hit the nail on the head!